Morris tribune., 1887-11-23
NO MERCY FOR PIRATES.


ceived more wounds than prize money.
One story in particular, which heard my
father tell several times over, had pecu-
liar interest for me, for / had seen the
vessel spoken Of in dock at Liverpool
will give the yarn in his own language as
near as can:
eve had run across from the Lacca-
dive Islands to the Gulf of Alden, and
were just inside the Island of Socotra,
when we picked up sailor floating on q
plank. 1t was about 2 o'clock in the
morning, with little or no sea running,
and the lookout saw him when he was yet
q mile away. How he was preserved from
the sharks has always been a matter of
mystery to me. When we lowered boat
to pick him up he was fairly surrounded
by the hungry monsters. Through the
ships glass counted nineteen cutting the
water around his float, and l could not
believe that the boat would be able to
reach him before he was drawn down.
II Providence ever makes a special
effort for poor humanity it made a grand
effort to preserve that sailors life and
permit him to fulfill his mission. He was
drawn safely aboard the boat, and when
he had had glass of grog we got his
story, He had been second mate on
board an American brig named the True
Flag. l think she hailed from Boston,
but am not sure. saw her in Liverpool
three years before this incident, and
painted on her stern was the first Amer
lean flag had ever seen except at a dis
lance. This was the reason I remem-
bered her above all others.
''The American had been up the gulf
and into the Red sea, and had come out
writ Nu1-fN If npVsrr 70
Mirhat to finish loading, when he was
attacked by three pirate dhows. This oc-
Cured the evening before, and only
twenty miles north of The island The
attack was made after shutdown, and
while two other merchantmen were in
sight. The dhows had been noticed
lowering about, and their evil intention
was suspected, but it was little the crew
Of the brig could do to defend themselves.
They had q few old muskets and cutlasses,
but the dhowS ran the brig aboard,
poured fifty or sixty men on to her decks,
and the fight was over in five minutes.
The mate, knowing that all was lost, had
gone overheard with plank during the
confusion, and the wind and sea had
drifted him down across our course.
There was no doubt that every man
aboard the brig had been cut down or
saved for captivity and ransom, and that
the vessel had been thoroughly plundered
by that time, but it was just such an in
cident as we wanted to hear Of We
hadn't had q brush with the pirates for
several weeks, and were getting rusty for
the want of work.
ssThe Spitf1re was, of course, q sailing
ship. She was a snug craft of thirty-six
guns, with a strong and ready crew, and
the first thing done after hearing the sail
or's story was to heave her to in the light
wind and transform her from a taught
and trim man-of-war into merchant
man. I had charge of this work, and it
was not the first time we had made the
change to deceive the pirates. Inside of
three hours the best glass aboard of
dhow could not have told the Spitfire, of
the royal navy, from the Sarah Jane, of
New Bedford. And then we beat up 10
the north for further news concerning the
brig. The wind was light and battling
and when night came we had seen moth
ing. Just at dark, however, a French
bark coming out of Keshin reported see
ing kthree dhoWs and q brig staining in
Aor bay between Mirbat and thk latter
place-a hiding place and rendezvous, as
we had previously been informed We
could do nothing going in there in the
night, but we stood on till pretty well in
to the coast and then prepared to lay off
and on. After midnight we got stiffish
land breeze and had to run to sea, and it
was well that this happened so. When
morning came we could just make out
the coast range of mountains through the
glass, and the breeze was dead against
us. 1t was only well into daylight when
the dhows were espied coming out. We
set signal of distress and pointed the
ships nose for the gulf, but we took good
care not to run too fast.
"The success of the evening previous
had emboldened the pirates. I don't
know what sort of looking over they
gave us from their mastheads, but they
were certainly deceived as to our identity.
They did not come dead at us on the start,
probably intending to give us a bit Of in
vestigation, but no sooner did the signal
Of distress become plain to them than each
dhow altered her course and bore straight
down. Did not our signal call for help?
Was it not their duty to hasten to our
aid? There was but one other sail in
sight, and she was well up the gulf. The
pirates had clear coast and hapless
victim, and they cracked on all SAIL They
had scarcely been seen before the Yankee
dhows of the day previous, and after that
we had no fears of making mistake
Our whole crew entered into the scheme
with will. While we did not beat to
quarters, every gun was made ready,
ammunition passed up, and long enough
before the dhows were up we had every
preparation made. Two-thirds of the
men were kept in shelter behind the bull
warks, and the pirates could see nothing
to arouse a suspicion. :.
t'The piratical crafts came along in a
bunch. They. were of about the same
size and burden, and each carried fully
forty men. When they had come down
within cannon shot they separated, having
probably planned to lay as aboard stem
and stern, but our captain did not propose
TO let it go that far. While he could have
no doubt of our ability to clean out the
scoundrelly gang, he realized that hun
bred determined fellows dumped upon our
decks with pistols and cutlasses meant
death and wounds to some Of our crew.
Just as the dhows separated our ports
were knocked open, the guns run out, and
next moment we were giving it to them
hot and heavy. The fellows could not
have been more surprised had the sea sud-
denly opened to swallow them up. Each
of the dhows had couple of cannons on
deck, but there was no thought of using
them. The knowledge that they had
caught a Tartar seemed to unnerve them,
and the first dhow had gone down before
either of the other two seemed to think of
escape. Then it was too late. Our shot
went right through them and left terrible
gaps for the sea to pour in, and in just
seven minutes by the watch from the
firing of the first gun we got the order to
cease firing. GtIff
lone dhow was at the bottom, the
second with her rail awash, and the third
was ON her beam end and slowly turning
turtle. The survivors Of our cannonade
were floating about onpieces of the wreck
age, but by the time we had lowered our
boats and picked up seven the rest had
been pulled under by the sharks, which
came to the feast in great school.
Among those rescued were the captains of
two of the dhows Seven worse looking
villains than those we picked up were
never seen in or out of prison. They were
q defiant lot, too. Having recovered from
their shock of STIrUrisp and cornnrphnnd-